SAMMY: How To Edit Windows Registry

In the previous article I gave you the first tutorial about how to edit the registry. Now lets learn more about editing the Windows registry in this second tutorial.

Steps:-

Uninstall Programs Manually:-

1. Just because Windows XP has the Add/Remove Programs feature Uninstall programs Manually it doesn't mean your application will appear in the list. Furthermore, even if it does appear, it's no guarantee that the uninstall feature will work. When you run across one of these situations the items listed below will help in getting rid of the application. Be aware that these steps may not remove everything associated with the application and can impact other applications on the computer. Have a backup or restore point and use caution.
2. Find the directory for the application and delete all the files in the directory. Delete the directory.
3. Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.
4. Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.

To remove the application entry from Add/Remove Programs (if present), open regedit and navigate to :-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.
Some applications have Services attached to them. If this is the case, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services, locate and delete the service.

5. In Windows Explorer, navigate to the individual user settings and delete program references. Common places to check would be:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs and delete relevant entries.
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and delete relevant entries.
C:\Documents and Settings\%YourUserID%\Start Menu\Programs and delete relevant entries. [Do this for each User ID listed]
C:\Documents and Settings\%YourUserID%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and delete relevant entries.[Do this for each User ID listed]

6. If no entries were found in the previous step and the application launches automatically, navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows and delete the entry.

Windows Tips @ Sammy

Show a Recycle Bin in your My Computer :-

Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\Namespace
In Namespace create a New Key & named it as {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
Now in Right pane make a value Default to “Recycle Bin” without Quotes.
Refresh a comp or Restart a comp to effect a change that u have made
1. Attributes
70 01 00 20? Adds both rename and delete to the menu
50 01 00 20? Adds only rename option to the menu
60 01 00 20? Adds only delete to the menu
47 01 00 20? Adds cut, copy, paste to the menu
40 01 00 20? Changes the menu to its default condition

Shutdown XP Faster :-

When a user shuts down Windows XP, first the system has to kill all services currently running. Every once in a while the service does not shut dow shutdown Xp Faster n instantly and windows give it a change to shut down on its own before it kills it. This amount of time that windows wait is stored in the system registry. If you modify this setting, then windows will kill the service earlier. To modify the setting, follow the directions below:

Start Regedit.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control.
Click on the "Control" Folder.
Select "WaitToKillServiceTimeout"
Right click on it and select Modify.
Set it a value lower than 2000 (Mine is set to 200). OR
Like previous versions of windows, it takes long time to restart or shutdown windows xp when the "Exit Windows" sound is enabled. To solve this problem you must disable this useless sound. Click start button then go to settings -> control panel -> Sound, Speech and Audio devices -> Sounds and Audio Devices -> Sounds, then under program events and windows menu click on "Exit Windows" sub-menu and highlight it. Now from sounds you can select, choose "none" and then click apply and ok. Now you can see some improvements when shutting down your system.

Display message on startup XP :-

If you would like to display a legal message or any other message in a Display a message on startup pop-up window when windows starts read below:

Start Regedit; if you are unfamiliar with Regedit please see our FAQ.
Navigate to :-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/WindowsNT/CurrentVersion/Winlogon.
Modify the key “legalnoticecaption” with what you want to name the window.
Modify the key “legalnoticetext” with what you want the window to say.
Restart.

Change a name of Microsoft Internet Explorer :-

Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key: Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
Name: Window Title
Data Type: REG_SZ
Value: Text
Whatever text you enter in for the value will appear in the title of the IE Window.
Note: I have only checked this in IE 5.x and 6.x.

Things To Be Taken Care Of:-

Editing the registry can be very dangerous, and can cause permanent damage to your system!
Write down the your changes and initial values. You may need to restore the registry as it was.
Registry editing may not be possible in some Windows versions.
A few words about clearing the pagefile on shutdown. Doing this has no performance benefits whatsoever. This does not delete the file but overwrites every byte with zero's. A boot time defrag will not be sped up by doing this. Clearing the pagefile is sometimes done as a security measure. But unless it is a part of a well thought out security policy it will avail you little. There are many other ways to obtain access to sensitive data and most of them require less effort. It should also be noted that this will considerably lengthen shutdown times.